Wet slate steps. It's raining now, too.
There I was heading into the house, then the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back. The peas went flying (later recovered) and the colander suffered a small dent, but apart from the shock, I seemed to have got away with no greater injury than a bruise on my well-padded behind.
It was about 24 hours later that I realised why my neck was aching so much: I had whiplash. It was only then that it struck me: I didn't bang my head. In the time it took me to hit the deck, which was far too fast for consciousness to keep up, my reflexes had responded to the situation by tensing my neck muscles in such a way that my head was protected from an abrupt encounter with the concrete patio. Isn't that amazing?
We humans tend to pride ourselves on our conscious reasoning, but the animal parts of us are also pretty darned impressive, when you think about it.
Such reflexes seem to work much better after an alcoholic beverage or two. Thanks to the snow/ice combo, I landed flat on my back in the early hours of Christmas morning after an evening of mulled cider and managed to avoid hitting my head, even though my conscious reasoning was, well, less conscious than under normal circumstances...
ReplyDeleteHope you're feeling better now.
I'm fine, thanks, in spite of recent close acquaintance with an alcoholic beverage or two ;-)
ReplyDeleteeek, that slate looks positively lethal - what's it like in the winter?
ReplyDeleteIt's no worse in the winter - probably less bad because we take more care!
ReplyDelete